


The Cornfield

by lost_spook



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Elemental Weirdness, M/M, Other, Sex Pollen, Telepathy, Trope Bingo Round 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 18:19:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/903373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/pseuds/lost_spook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time’s latest attack is taking an unusual shape, and Silver and Steel get considerably more than they bargained for when they try to deal with it...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cornfield

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Trope Bingo "Sex Pollen" square. 
> 
> With many thanks to SeriesFive. (The loan of the shared brain cell came at just the right moment. ;-D)

The view was pretty enough, Silver thought, as he surveyed the surrounding countryside from his vantage position up on the branch of a tree. There were fields and low hills stretching out beneath him, bordered with hedges, and a country lane winding its wayward path through them. Yes, it was quite charming – as long as he ignored the one golden and sunlit field of corn in the centre of it all. Not that he had anything against sunlit cornfields as a rule, but they weren’t supposed to be part of the landscape on a cloudy night in spring. 

Silver watched the anomalous patch of land and considered the matter. There was also a house in the middle of the field, but it wasn’t possible to see both at the same time – he had to focus on either the field or the house, or one or the other shifted and blurred. Definitely odd, he decided.

He crawled to the end of the branch, working out the acreage of the cornfield and the centre-point – only an estimate, of course, until he or someone measured more accurately, but he was usually right.

Then Silver turned his head, hearing the sound of voices that carried easily in the stillness of the night. He smiled, looking down as two familiar figures walked along towards his tree. Now, _this_ view, he couldn’t fault, he thought, taking pleasure in observing them unseen. 

Sapphire had on a long, flowing blue dress – cornflower blue, Silver noted in appreciation – while Steel was wearing a thin, dark coat over his usual suit. Silver cast a glance down at his own outfit and elected to alter it to a matching suit of a lighter shade of grey, and a silver-coloured tie with diagonal scarlet stripes. Sober enough for Steel, he thought with satisfaction, but with a dash of colour for Sapphire.

“Well?” Steel said, as they stopped beneath Silver’s tree, apparently unaware of his presence. “Sapphire?”

“It’s already growing – expanding outwards,” she said, as she turned to look back at the cornfield. “The affected area is one thirtieth larger than when we arrived.”

Silver decided it was time to announce his presence. He gave a cough, and then said, “I was wondering where you two had got to.”

The two of them turned and looked around in alarm, before Sapphire suddenly halted and stared straight up at Silver. 

She tilted her head to one side, and gave the smallest of smiles. “Silver.”

“Unusual, isn’t it?” Silver said, beaming down at her from his perch on the tree branch.

Steel marched towards the tree, rather as if he had intention to shake Silver out of it, but Silver swiftly removed himself and reappeared behind Steel on the hillside.

“Silver,” Steel said, swinging around sharply. “What are you doing here?”

Silver raised an eyebrow at the brusque greeting, and then darted an amused glance at Sapphire. “Didn’t they tell you?”

“Silver,” Steel growled.

Steel was Steel, as ever, and that was part of his charm, if that was the word for it, but it _would_ , Silver thought, be nice to be welcomed for once. You wouldn’t think he was a valuable colleague from Steel’s reaction. You’d think he was an intruder Steel had found unexpectedly and was about to demand whether or not he had any good explanation for his being there before he set the dogs on him. 

“As I understand it, there’s some sort of object – a mechanical artefact – at the bottom of this – something that’s in my line of work. You’re going to need me.”

“Artefact?”

Silver shrugged. “Well, I don’t know what it is yet.”

“Do you know what’s happening down there?” Sapphire asked, moving across to touch Silver’s shoulder lightly, instantly attracting his attention, and then directing it towards the field he’d been observing earlier. “What it’s doing, rather?”

“I can see that shouldn’t be there,” said Silver, leaning his head towards hers. “Precise details, no.”

“You don’t know much, do you?” Steel put in.

Silver straightened himself and rose to the implicit challenge. “But I _do_ know where the artefact is. Sapphire, you said the affected area is growing, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Equally, in all directions, or in one particular direction?”

“Equally,” she said, a curious note to her voice. “I don’t see –”

Silver smiled at them both. “Before you got here, I was observing the lie of the land and making some calculations. Now, if that’s so, it confirms what I was thinking – the artefact is in the centre of the anomalous area. Dead centre, I would say, not far from the farm house.”

“Yes,” said Sapphire, slowly, considering that in relation to her own readings. “Yes, that does seem probable.”

“More than probable,” said Silver, and started down towards the field. “Shall we go and get it?”

“Silver!” Steel caught at his arm as he tried to walk past, bringing the technician to a halt. 

Silver gave him an enquiring look, awaiting an explanation but not attempting to break free of his hold. Steel held on longer than was necessary, though that, Silver thought, could merely be from lack of trust that Silver wouldn’t carry on regardless. He stifled a small, inward sigh of impatience.

“You might want to know more about what it is first,” said Steel. “What it does.” 

Silver gave him a close look, sure there was some mockery or amusement buried in his tone, but Steel’s expression held no clue.

Sapphire only smiled and held out a flower to Silver. 

He shot her a wary glance, but then took it and examined it with delighted fascination. “Oh, now, that is remarkable. Very pretty, too.”

“Dangerous,” growled Steel.

Silver traced his finger over the flower. It was blue and silver, with gold edging. From a distance, he might have thought it was a cornflower, but it wasn’t. It was too ornate, almost as if it were taken from an illustrative border instead of being a real flower – and what was more, the stem was partly metal. Steel and silver and gold, to be precise. The blue petals were hardly even there – merely a softness he sensed as he gently touched them with his fingertips. “It’s been created from the artefact – no, not entirely –” He frowned at the flower. There was something more than he expected; more than the artefact and its associations.

“It carries the memory of the moment,” said Sapphire. “Spreading it out like an infection, and if anybody walks into that field, into the influence of it and its pollen –”

Silver raised his eyebrows, understanding simultaneously from Sapphire and from the odd flower precisely what that memory or moment of intense emotion was – and its potential consequences. “ _Oh_ ,” he said, and laughed aloud at the idea. “However _did_ you find out?”

“That isn’t important,” said Sapphire, though she smiled back at him, obviously amused herself, even if her tone didn’t betray the fact.

“So you should be particularly careful,” added Steel, in what was presumably a heavy handed attempt at teasing.

Silver looked down at the flower again. “I hardly think –”

“As far as we know,” said Sapphire, “nobody has wandered in here yet, but it’s only a matter of time – an anomaly like this is going to rouse people’s curiosity.”

“Among other things,” Silver said, and then tried to look innocent at Steel’s glare. “Well, there are worse fates, you know.”

“The potential consequences don’t bear thinking about,” said Steel, refusing to acknowledge Silver’s levity. “This shouldn’t be here. All it needs is one unwary human and then, as Sapphire says –”

“Two, surely, at least?”

“What?” said Steel.

“Well, unless the influence continues outside the field, it couldn’t do much damage with _one_ , would it?” 

Sapphire moved in between them. “Silver. What do you make of it? You said there was something else?”

They were both watching him now as he turned his attention back to the impossible flower, almost as if it was a test. Silver sat down on the grass and studied the flower again. It was exceptionally awkward. He needed the artefact itself, not this strange blossom that had come out of it – grown from it, quite literally, it seemed. However, he put his fingertip to the leaves, stem and petals again and understood what it was he had been picking up. 

He lifted his head. “There are components I don’t recognise.”

“What are they?” Steel asked, crouching down beside him. “These components.”

Steel’s questions pushed him further into recognising and sorting the information he’d picked up. Silver frowned, trying to follow the surprising results he was getting. As he did so, fragments of the memory in question drifted into his mind, although he waved those aside with nothing more than amusement. His expertise here lay elsewhere. 

“Silver?” said Steel, as impatient as ever. 

Steel would have liked to see what Silver saw for himself, Silver thought, or take the knowledge directly from his mind, wouldn’t he? He’d clearly like to dispense with the part where he had to wait for Silver to explain it.

Silver made him wait a few moments longer – just to be sure, of course. He pulled out his small case of tools, and prodded at various parts of the flower with one of them. “Hmm, well,” he murmured to himself. “That’s unexpected.”

“Silver,” said Sapphire, her tone a warning tinged with amusement.

He lifted up his head. “There are two artefacts,” he told them. 

“Two?” So Steel hadn’t been expecting that.

Silver nodded. He pointed at the petals with the scalpel. “There are elements of something else – glass, plastic, steel, lithium mainly. I don’t recognise what it came from. The rest is, I believe –”

“A watch,” said Sapphire. “An old-fashioned pocket watch. It’s been there for a hundred and thirty-three years.”

Silver hadn’t followed it quite that far, but he recognised the truth of her statement and smiled slightly. “Some things don’t change,” he said, with distant amusement. Then he turned his head towards Steel. “The other object is from the future. The same event – or near enough – in the same place, and two artefacts with that association left together – or, I mean, one of them _will_ be left there in…” He let his voice trail away, and worked it out in his mind. 

“Twenty-two years and four months,” said Sapphire, ahead of him again, now that he had spelled out the distinction between the conflicting readings. “Yes. I couldn’t make sense of it before, but that would explain it.”

“What is this other object?” Steel asked. 

Silver listed its components in his mind again and tried to understand what their combined purpose was. If he had the artefact itself, it would have been simple – and an item from the future! He hoped he would get to have a look at it. However, he didn’t have it now, so it was frustratingly like one of those ridiculous games humans played – where they blindfolded someone and made them guess what various objects were by touch alone. “It’s – I’m not sure – it’s plastic – a communications device – or a camera – no, not quite. There are images on it. Images of the – ah –” He stopped and gestured, and then gave Sapphire a wicked look.

“Why?” said Steel.

Silver raised his eyebrows. 

Steel glared at him. “Silver. Why is it there?”

Silver looked back at the flower. “Well, as I said, the two objects have been drawn together – time really isn’t playing fair, is it?”

“It never does,” said Steel. “Then, as you said, Silver, we’d better go and get it, hadn’t we?”

Silver hopped to his feet, still thinking eagerly of discovering what the mysterious device was. There were all sorts of things emerging these days – microtechnology, computing, something along those lines. He found it all fascinating, even if Steel didn’t.

“I’m going to walk the perimeter,” said Sapphire. “Try to keep it in its bounds – maybe I can challenge it, keep its attention away from you.”

“If Silver knows where it is,” said Steel, “this shouldn’t take too long – provided it doesn’t have any more tricks to throw at us.”

Silver halted beside Steel, as Sapphire walked away, his mind finally diverted from future technology. “Do you think it might?” he asked, hovering at the other’s shoulder nervously. “What sort of tricks?”

“It will if it knows what we’re doing,” said Steel, turning his head. “Best to get a move on, Silver.”

 

Silver followed Steel through the cornfield. Stepping from night into brilliant summer sunlight under a blazing blue sky was disorientating. It wasn’t just a section of the countryside that was enjoying a summer’s day when it should have been a spring night, it was the memory of a summer’s day – the sky endlessly blue, and the corn that fraction more golden than it could be in life. Everything was too perfect, too still.

Steel and Silver shared a glance before walking on; a brief, wordless acknowledgement of the unreality of their surroundings.

The flowers were still by far the strangest part of it. Silver picked one at careful intervals as they walked through the field, examining each with interest until he had if not a bouquet, at least a posy. He was just tucking the latest into his button hole when Steel turned around so abruptly that Silver walked into him and fell over in a shower of blue petals and silvery green leaves. 

“Is that wise?” Steel demanded, kicking at one of the fallen flowers. “We shouldn’t be affected, but, as you said, Time isn’t playing fair. And Sapphire says the memory is strong.”

Silver gave him an affronted look, and then tidied his hair before retrieving two of the flowers. He got back to his feet without having visibly moved and was suddenly next to Steel, almost leaning against him. 

“See, here,” said Silver, in his ear. “This is the first flower I picked – very like the one you and Sapphire showed me, yes?”

“Yes, we know. They all are. Come on, Silver!”

Silver caught hold of Steel’s sleeve. “And _this_ is the last one I picked.”

“Is it different?” asked Steel, looking down at it. He took it from Silver and scowled at it.

Silver gave him a puzzled look. The difference between the two flowers was so obvious to him, it might as well have been written in scarlet letters across the sky. He couldn’t comprehend how it wasn’t as much so to Steel. “Yes! Steel, look at it properly. The petals – don’t you see?”

“A slightly different shade of blue, that’s all,” said Steel. “You’d expect some variation in colour –”

“In a normal flower, yes,” Silver agreed. “These aren’t normal, are they?”

Steel understood, then. Silver felt him grow still beside him. “We’re getting nearer to the trigger – the centre.”

“Yes,” said Silver. “And, as we do, these flowers grow a little less natural, if you could call them that in the first place. The stems more silvery, the petals a deeper blue – and the memory and its effects accordingly more intense.”

“You should have said.”

“I was going to,” said Silver. “Oh, don’t worry, Steel. I haven’t suddenly developed designs on your virtue.” Then he flashed Steel a grin. “Not any more so than usual, that is.”

“But we should be careful?”

Silver’s momentary amusement had vanished again. “Oh, yes. I think so. Very careful.”

Steel was evidently thinking about it further as he walked on, since he turned back. “And, of course, if they start losing colour again?”

“Then we’ve walked past the epicentre, yes,” said Silver. “Somehow, though, I don’t think we’ll do that. Have you noticed how many more of them there are the nearer we get?”

Steel nodded, and put out a hand to halt Silver. “There.”

“Oh, yes,” said Silver, as ahead of them the corn stalks gave way to a small circle of vividly blue flowers. “That would be it.”

Steel moved forward and Silver followed. Silver could already feel both artefacts here, they were that close. He knelt down on the earth and felt his way backwards and forwards, concentrating hard. It was difficult – the flowers were in many senses the same as the artefacts and that meant he was surrounded by distractions from his target.

“Well?” said Steel from somewhere above him. 

Silver shook his head, feeling his way along the earth with his hands. It was damp under his fingers, he noted, not dry. The memory or illusion might cover this area, but reality was still here underneath: a sunny day had been papered over a chilly spring night. 

“Silver.” Steel was growing impatient again. “I thought you said you knew where it was?”

Silver stopped in his search and raised himself to his knees, and then looked up at Steel. “Well, yes, roughly speaking, but I don’t have a map, you know. No handy X marks the spot for us.”

 _X marks the spot?_ Steel queried, but he wasn’t even expecting an answer; Silver could tell from his tone.

Silver crawled along the ground again, his face close to the earth, but he smiled to himself. _Oh, pirates, and buried treasure, and all that, Steel._

“Pirates?”

“Never mind.”

Silver paused again in his searching, thinking the matter out. Then he lay down on the ground, putting his ear to the earth and listening. He could hear it: the one giving out a faint buzz of energy, the other ticking gently. And no watch should be doing that after a century buried underground, not even one of the very best workmanship. Silver edged himself further along, heedless of how tangled up in the flowers he got and fished out from under their leaves the device from the future.

“What is it?” Steel asked, crouching beside Silver and causing him to start.

Silver drew himself up and looked at the object in his hands with interest. “A good question.”

“A communications device, you said?”

Silver turned it over, and then around. A communications device, yes, he thought, but more. How very neat – it had a number of combined functions and all in such a small package. He knew what it did now he had hold of it: could see, for an instant, the developments of the future and was fascinated by that glimpse. “Yes,” he said. “Primarily a telephone, would you believe?”

“It doesn’t look like one. Are you sure?”

Silver gave him a hurt look. “Of course I’m sure! It’s from the future – naturally it doesn’t look the same. Things change, Steel, and there are obviously going to be some interesting technological –”

“Dangerous?”

“Only in its being here at all,” said Silver, “and so near to the other – and it’s that which was the starting point, the true trigger. It drew this device back like a magnet and the disturbance here was worsened further.”

“Humans mating,” said Steel with distaste.

Silver put the odd telephone in his jacket pocket, and stifled a laugh under his breath. “You don’t have an ounce of romance in you, do you, Steel?”

“Well, that’s what it is, isn’t it?” Steel turned around, surveying this small be-flowered clearing in the centre of the unreal field. “That’s what’s caused all this trouble.”

“Yes, true,” said Silver. “Still, you can hardly expect them to stop doing that, can you? Now, let me find that watch.”

Silver put his ear back to the ground and followed the steady ticking sound, until he reached the spot. It was at the very centre of the clearing, of the whole thing, much as he’d said. And Steel, he realised next, was already standing precisely there. Silver stopped by his colleague’s leg and then turned his face upward with a slow smile; part sheepish, part admiring. “Steel.”

“You said dead centre, didn’t you?” Steel countered, as Silver got to his feet. 

Silver laughed. “Yes, I did. Now, all I need to do –”

“I’ll get it,” said Steel in a tone there was no arguing with. He crouched down and pointed to the ground. “Here?”

Silver nodded. “Yes. Steel, I don’t see –”

“It hasn’t tried to stop us, has it?” Steel said. “Don’t you think that’s worrying?”

Silver looked around him nervously. “Well… perhaps. But it may be more concerned with Sapphire –”

“Yes,” said Steel. “It may. But let’s be careful. You said that as well, didn’t you, Silver?”

The sunshine suddenly felt threatening again, blazing down without a cloud, and the breeze that passed through the corn stalks and the flowers seemed to be oddly warm. It didn’t seem to move or touch anything other than the pair of them: the corn stalks and flowers stayed remarkably still, while Steel’s hair was whipped into his face and when Silver let go of his handkerchief, it was blown to one side. There was dust, or pollen, from those flowers dancing around them, visible to Silver if not to anyone else. Silver decided to ignore it and watched Steel instead. 

Steel reached his hand into the earth without digging, forcing his way down to where the watch was hidden, under a good few inches of dirt. Then he brought it back up, and Silver moved towards him, his gaze on the object that was causing all the trouble. It was made of copper, nickel, zinc, some steel in the workings, and it had an ornate engraved pattern of flowers that had nearly been worn away, but which had once been plated with gold and silver. 

“Good,” said Silver in relief. Nothing seemed to have happened to them, for which he was thankful. Sapphire must be keeping it busy. “Now, I’ll just examine it and we’ll –” He stopped and looked at Steel rather than the timepiece, suddenly feeling alarmingly sure that something indefinable had shifted about the other. “Steel?”

Steel didn’t answer.

“What is it?” Silver asked. “Steel?”

Steel looked across at him with an unexpected intensity that made Silver blink. He noted that Steel had his hand gripped tightly around the timepiece. Silver had a sudden image of those faded engravings, those flowers, winding their way from the watch upwards, and on into Steel.

“Well, say something,” said Silver, giving a nervous laugh. “Should we leave?” Then he leant forward, worried enough that he didn’t attempt to hide the fact any longer. “Steel, are you all right?”

“Silver.” Steel looked at him again, and it was more than just a gaze – all his mental focus was in it, narrowed down from the assignment to Silver alone.

Despite the nature of the assignment, Silver hadn’t expected anything like this and his first reaction was an unguarded thrill of delight at the attention, followed by a deep fascination as to what Steel would do, if he really could be under such an influence. Alarm and recollection of the danger, and the business in hand trailed in only belatedly, and that, he swiftly realised, was an inadvertent error. In the circumstances, Steel could hardly miss his response, and while shock or horror might have reached him, Silver’s instinctive pleasure was only an invitation.

“Steel,” said Silver, though it was hard to do anything while under the pressure of that gaze. Steel’s grip, both mental and physical, was as strong as his name implied and, while Silver had many talents, when it came to sheer power, Steel had the advantage. “Steel, it’s the watch. Let me have it, and we’ll get back to Sapphire –”

Steel gave him an uninterested glance, seeming to weigh up the suggestion and then push it to one side as irrelevant. He put out a hand to Silver’s jacket, taking hold of the lapel for a moment, and then running his finger down it, along the fold. It was a harmless enough movement, but there was a telepathic exploration that accompanied it that cast Silver into confusion.

“The watch, Steel,” Silver said, again, trying to focus on that and not on his colleague. It wasn’t easy. Steel had tugged him nearer, and now he raised one hand to Silver’s head, ready to deepen the mental connection. And again Silver had to stifle a leap of excitement, since he was every bit as curious about exploring Steel in this way. _Steel, not here, not like this! We don’t know what it wants – we could cause a time break –_

Steel paused, as if noting his words, and then again casting them aside as a mere distraction. He was, with inexorable logic, taking Silver’s first reactions as true; Silver’s concerns as unnecessary fussing.

“This isn’t you,” Silver said, trying to be as resistant as he could. His mind kept dancing away, however, speculating about what Steel would do, what might happen next, how interesting it could be. “Steel, I said. The watch –!”

 _Then who is it?_ Steel asked mockingly. He did glance down at the watch, though, but he then – which, Silver thought, was the limit, given what was happening – gave Silver a suspicious glare and pocketed it, out of his way. _Stop being unreasonable, Silver._

Silver stared at him. “Me?” he said. “ _I’m_ being unreasonable? You’re the –”

“Shut _up_ , Silver,” said Steel, and gripped his head with both hands now, and then he strode into his mind.

It was a dizzying sensation – suddenly all of Steel’s energy and strength, his focus and ruthlessness in getting things done, were concentrated solely on Silver. Silver made an effort to wriggle free, but it was half-hearted – his instinctive reaction to such flattering attention was to bask in it and by the time his sense of self-preservation tried to catch up with him, he was overwhelmed. He was fast losing all sense of his surroundings, of anything that was not Steel, and finding it hard to remember why that was a problem.

He did his best to let his thoughts remain free, letting them scatter as Steel approached; his presence a metaphorical searchlight in his mind. Silver reminded himself of his purpose, here and in general, and observed the effects of those flowers on Steel. He could picture them wound around the other’s thoughts, the pollen everywhere. Steel was thoroughly contaminated, and Steel was inside Silver’s mind, clouding the thoughts of both.

There was the slightest hitch then, as Steel tried to reconcile the expected human reactions to the flowers with his own desire – more for contact, for knowledge, control, and Silver’s abilities – but before Silver could take advantage of that, he seemed to dismiss it, finding the way in which those were not mutually exclusive – that more contact was useful for both. He moved even nearer to Silver and tightened his grip on his head, and then kissed him.

Silver caught at Steel’s arm with one hand. He felt as if he was falling – and he mustn’t, though he had gone past remembering why. He wanted to disregard the troublesome thought, but there was something – something – this wasn’t right –

Steel stroked the side of Silver’s face, and then kissed him again, accompanying the movement with an even deeper mental probing.

“I – no, wait –” said Silver, breathless in a way he shouldn’t have been. “There is something – Steel –” And he waved his free hand as he spoke, and it brushed his pocket, touching the futuristic telephone as he did so. He had a brief moment of clarity, aware again of their unreal surroundings: gold and blue, and the flowers.

Steel frowned at Silver, shifting his grip on the technician as if to push away such intruding thoughts.

“You remember where we are, don’t you?” said Silver, putting all that he had into one last effort. “What we were doing?”

Steel nodded, but Silver could both feel and see how unimportant he felt that to be in comparison to his investigation of the technician.

“Well, then,” said Silver, “we should leave the centre, don’t you think?” He didn’t know now whether he wanted moving away to be enough to bring Steel back to his senses, or if Silver wouldn’t be able to bear it if it did. It didn’t matter. They couldn’t endanger everything like this.

Something of that seemed to reach Steel, enough that he marched Silver backwards without loosening his hold on him, just until they were out of the circle of flowers, and back into the cornfield.

“Now,” said Steel, and looked at Silver with a satisfied gleam in his eyes.

Silver had to catch at him, as Steel advanced on his mind again and this time he did let himself fall; let everything be Steel. He was caught, but it was by no means unpleasant. Steel was a protective as well as an invasive force. Silver had so many abilities of his own – so many clever things he could do – but here Steel was unbreakable and Silver a softer, malleable substance, allowing Steel to shape him and bend him. It should have been alarming, but it wasn’t. Somewhere within he thought dimly that perhaps that was even more worrying, but all the forefront of his mind was consumed with Steel and his own explorations.

If Steel’s attention was solely on Silver, now the reverse was also true. Silver was already overwhelmed with his presence in his mind; it rendered everything else blurred and meaningless. He had no awareness of the ground or the rest of his surroundings, only Steel. He could still see the flowers, winding their way around both their thoughts, but they merely seemed decorative now, like the engraving they mirrored and he thought again how pretty they were. And Steel – Silver shivered under his touch as the contact brought dark images into his mind: Steel’s last few uses, his history. He could be many things: a shield, a blunt instrument, the blade of the executioner, the support that held whole structures together – so very unlike Silver, and yet there were places where they met and functioned together. And then, within him, that potential for extreme coldness, and its opposite always existed, and neither were safe for Silver, who paused to wonder what this process might unleash…

He felt an unspoken reassurance from Steel, and lifted his head at that (and how and when had he come to be lying on the ground? Where there already gaps in his consciousness, his memory?). Steel, concerned for his feelings? A flicker of amusement passed through his mind: _You can’t be feeling well._

Steel didn’t respond in words, but he gave a brief smile – inward or outward, Silver wasn’t sure – and turned another corner in Silver’s mind, causing Silver to clutch at him in pleasure. It shook Silver’s customary precision; he thought he might lose control of his form, lose his form, but then Steel ran his hand down his side, reminding him of his proper shape. Their thoughts were becoming ever more closely entangled: Silver knew Steel’s satisfaction at their progress and reflected the feeling back at Steel, and he could feel his own moments of pleasure and intense curiosity repeated through Steel in an ever fading and entrancing pattern of echoes. 

Silver barely heard the other voice when it came into his mind. It wasn’t Steel; it wasn’t part of this, and he had no spare attention to offer it – her, he noted vaguely, as the voice tried again. The third time, she didn’t try to reach Silver. Instead, she used him as a conduit: _Steel!_

In response, Steel let go of his hold on Silver, completely and without warning. Silver had no knowledge of anything for a moment: no sense of touch or hearing, or seeing, no passing of time. He had been focusing only on reading Steel, and Steel had removed himself, leaving a vacuum.

It didn’t last, of course. Silver blinked, as his vision returned – blurry, but there was light and colour, and his thoughts were his own again. He could only wish they weren’t just yet, but that would pass. 

“Give me the watch,” Sapphire was saying. Silver saw Steel hold out his hand in response, so he assumed he did as she asked. “Now, I think we’d better get both of you away from here, don’t you?”

 _I – I don’t think I can move_ , said Silver in instinctive panic, but he was talking to himself – to where Steel had been in his mind. Which was probably as well; he didn’t necessarily want them to know how shaken he was. This was undoubtedly going to be awkward enough as it was. 

Steel glanced around him. “Yes, I think we should.”

 _No, wait, don’t leave me!_ Silver still couldn’t quite make himself heard, but he found himself taken with them both anyway, landing back on the hillside, in darkness that was beginning to edge towards dawn. 

“I couldn’t reach either of you,” said Sapphire. “And the affected area expanded visibly. I knew something must be wrong.”

Steel frowned at her. “What did you do?”

“It’s all right, Steel,” she said, lifting her head; haughtiness tempered with a mix of amusement and affection. “I challenged it more directly, that’s all. I forced my way in to find you. It seems I was only just in time.”

“Nothing worse happened? It didn’t do anything else?”

“No, but I think Silver was in considerable danger,” Sapphire said, and her amusement intensified as she looked at the technician.

“I was perfectly all right,” said Silver, bristling at the suggestion that he hadn’t been able to handle the situation, however correct that might be in some insignificant particulars. “Steel, however, was completely infected by –”

Sapphire raised an eyebrow and smirked at him. “I know.”

“Silver was in no danger,” said Steel. “Let him have the watch. It’s about time he did what he came here to do.”

“I will,” said Sapphire. “But I don’t suppose he’ll be able to do anything with it – not yet.”

Silver was still sitting on the ground, under the tree he’d climbed before, and trying to make it look as if that were out of choice rather than necessity. Continued absence of Steel was making him feel distinctly off-balance, but that still didn’t mean he appreciated them talking about him over his head, or daring to suggest he couldn’t do something so simple. “Of course I can!”

“Try, then,” said Sapphire, and threw the pocket watch over to him.

Silver couldn’t catch it. It fell through his fingers and he had to fumble around in the grass even to pick it up. Once he had, he tried to concentrate on it, but it kept blurring. He gave a small _hmm_ of professional interest, covering his uncertainty, and then put the watch down while reaching for his tools, but in doing so, read where Steel had placed his hand over his pocket. He stopped, finding himself trying to ignore all the things that instantly leapt into his mind again. He looked up at Sapphire; a slightly sheepish expression on his face.

“See?” said Sapphire, but more softly this time. She crouched down next to him and took the tools out of his pocket for him.

Silver leant towards her. _But why? Steel isn’t –_

 _Well, Steel is different._ Sapphire placed the tools in Silver’s hand and held onto both as she spoke. _In any case, Steel was affected by the artefact – those artificial flowers and their pollen. Time sensed a threat and attacked him, using what it had to hand._

_Yes, I understand that, Sapphire, but –_

She tilted her head to one side, and smiled at him again, still slightly softer than usual in attitude and tone. _You, on the other hand – you were affected by Steel. The one wasn’t real – it was an illusion that vanished as soon as I removed the watch. The other is entirely real._

Silver managed a laugh. “Very much so, yes.”

“Well?” said Steel, shifting his position in impatience. “Can he do it or are we going to have to try something else?”

Silver frowned up at him. “Maybe, if you’d stop standing there, distracting me with your – your –” He waved a hand in vague irritation. “Well, just standing there!”

“You’d better help him, Steel,” said Sapphire, as she walked back to the edge of the cornfield, engaging the unseen force again.

Steel watched her go, and then looked back down at Silver.

“I can’t help it,” said Silver, his voice rising a pitch at the unfairness. “Go _away_ , Steel, and maybe then I’ll –”

“Sapphire can’t hold it back forever,” Steel said, ignoring his protests. He gave Silver another look, and then cautiously sat down beside him. He didn’t take hold of his arm, but he was sitting close enough for them to touch shoulders.

Silver would rather not admit it, but the re-establishing of some sort of closeness was an inexpressible relief. Well, he thought, feeling more himself already, presumably Steel could tell without any need for words. Silver gave him a rueful smile.

“Now,” said Steel. “The watch.”

Yes, now he could look at the watch without being unduly distracted by his colleague. Silver took the object in his hands and considered it. It was of good quality, and the decorative engraving spoke of a more affluent owner than one would expect of someone who left their belongings in a cornfield, but there was nothing in its construction or design that could have attracted Time’s attention. Recollecting the flowers, he took the precaution of removing the engravings, pulling them off in a long metal thread of silver and gold that he wound about his fingers. Once he had finished, he watch’s cover was now smooth and lacking in any floral decorations.

Silver turned his attention to the catch next, but it was stubborn, so he reached out for his tools again, still lying beside him. He pulled out a small scalpel and prised the watch open. They both heard, as he did so, a sound like approaching thunder. 

Silver looked up warily and found Steel was equally alert. The area covered by the impossible cornfield seemed to have shrunk considerably.

“Finish it,” said Steel. “Don’t give it a chance to do anything.”

Silver didn’t need to be told. He merely continued to deconstruct the watch, pulling out the component pieces of the mechanism until the ticking stopped and the cornfield vanished entirely.

“There,” said Silver, and gave Steel a smile. “See. If you’d only handed it to me when I asked you –”

“The other thing,” said Steel. “That telephone – whatever it is.” He was still sitting near enough to put his hand in Silver’s jacket pocket and pull the object out.

Silver took it from him, and tried not to let it show, how intensely aware he was of the contact. “Oh, _that_. It’s quite harmless now, you know.” Not, of course, that he would try to keep an item from the future, but he would have liked to play with it for a while. 

“Harmless?” said Steel. “It affected you, didn’t it? Get rid of it, Silver.”

Silver stared back at him.

“What?”

Silver hesitated for a moment. He thought what his own reactions had been and where they had come from had been only too obvious, so much so, that he wondered if this was a test, or offer to let him backtrack. He wasn’t sure whether to take it as such, whatever the truth, but the need to defend his expertise won out. “I disarmed it when I picked it up. As I said, Steel, it’s quite harmless. It was drawn here by the other, the two acting as magnets, pulling Time out of shape between them, but it really was the watch that was the –”

“But you –” Steel halted, and scowled at him. 

Silver shook his head in return. “Did you really think that if I was affected, I wouldn’t have taken a more, ah, _active_ role in the proceedings?”

Steel only looked at him again.

“I _was_ trying to stop you,” said Silver, uncomfortable under the other’s continued gaze, “otherwise… Well! If I took it into my head to repay you in kind, Steel, the process would be far more entertaining for both of us.”

“Would it?” And then, much to his surprise, Steel actually laughed. “You _weren’t_ affected, Silver?”

“Well, yes, in a sense, but only by proxy,” said Silver, disconcerted by the other’s amusement. “Steel – I was taken by surprise. I –” He cut himself off, frowning because Steel was still looking amused and Silver didn’t understand why.

“Silver,” Steel said, and took hold of the other’s tie. “You’d better sort yourself out.”

Silver was unable to help his attention being drawn to the movement and Steel’s increased proximity rather than anything Steel had said. He leaned in nearer, instinctively, helplessly even. “I’m sorry?” he said eventually and vaguely in the face of Steel’s silence.

“I said, sort yourself out.” Steel let go of the tie and nodded down at Silver.

Silver followed his gaze, and then caught hold of his tie himself in surprise. “Oh! _Oh_.” It was blue now, sky blue, and an old-fashioned cravat rather than a narrow modern tie. In fact, his whole outfit had altered. His suit was dove grey and more tailored than before and in addition to the blue silk cravat, he had a waistcoat in pale gold, patterned with some very familiar looking flowers, the stems worked in gold and silver, the petals in blue. He gave a sheepish smile, and couldn’t help admiring the unexpected change, even if he was, by his reckoning, at least one hundred and twenty years out of date.

“You weren’t affected?” said Steel again; it was almost a jeer.

Silver had to laugh. “By proxy, I said.”

“And by waistcoat, apparently.”

“Oh, very amusing.”

“So,” said Steel, for the third time, “sort yourself out, Silver.”

Silver opened his mouth to object to the idea that he needed any such thing, before shutting it again and realising worriedly that he was still much too unfocused to do anything about either the suit, or his state of mind. He looked away and then said, unwillingly, “I don’t think I can – not yet, Steel.”

“Of course you can,” said Steel, and gripped Silver’s arm. “Now, Silver. You don’t want to leave it a foothold.”

And, as so often when Steel pushed for more from him, Silver found it was possible. He felt his mind spring back into shape, and all of his senses sharpened again.

Yes, that was better, Silver thought in relief. He got to his feet with no unsteadiness and beamed at Steel as he also stood, facing him. “You’re not entirely free of its influence, either,” he pointed out, and brushed light, golden dust from Steel’s suit and then, with an amused glance at him, straightened the other’s tie, and his jacket. “There.”

Steel glared at him, and grabbed hold of his wrists, forcing him back. “Silver! Don’t you think that’s unwise, here, after this? Do you _want_ me to -?”

“Yes,” said Silver, leaping in and taking advantage of Steel’s phrasing. “Oh, not here, not now, obviously. It wouldn’t be safe. But in better circumstances, yes, Steel. Next time with a little less of you steam-rollering your way over me, of course.”

Steel stared at him again. It wasn’t really that different from the glare, but Silver could see underlying amusement in the other’s expression now – something indefinable in the set of his jaw and a certain light in his eye. He didn’t say anything for what seemed like a very long time, but Silver knew he was accepting the challenge. Eventually, he gave a private smile, and said, “I suppose it could be… informative. Useful.”

“Oh, very informative, I promise,” said Silver, and tried not to laugh, or cause Steel to backtrack. “And you’re curious, aren’t you?” He would have liked to act on this opportunity now in case better circumstances were never available, but that was probably the lingering after-effects again. This agreement might be, too, but it was an acceptable excuse for both of them, it seemed, and, really, Silver at least had been looking for one for a while. Given what had just happened, he was fairly sure Steel wasn’t entirely sorry for it, either. Even if he’d probably put it in very different and dispiritingly dour terms. He certainly didn’t like leaving things unfinished, anyway.

Steel raised an eyebrow at him. “There’s still your outfit.” He paused. “You look ridiculous.”

“Would you say so?” Sapphire said, rejoining them without warning. She gave Silver a thoroughly amused glance and he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been listening. She directed an arch look at him and ran her hand down his jacket sleeve. “I think it suits you. Very anachronistic, though.”

Silver nodded, giving it a regretful glance. “Yes. Rather pretty, isn’t it?”

“Dangerous,” said Steel, much as he had about the flowers earlier.

Sapphire watched them both, as Silver reverted to the same modern suit he’d chosen earlier and adjusted his tie. 

“Both,” she said, smiling. “Unquestionably.”


End file.
